editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Science editor Geoff Brumfiel oversees coverage of everything from butterflies to black holes across NPR News programs and on NPR.org.Prior to becoming the editor for fundamental research news in April of 2016, Brumfiel worked for three years as a reporter covering physics and space. Brumfiel has carried his microphone into ghost villages created by the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. He's tracked the journey of highly enriched uranium as it was shipped out of Poland. For a story on how animals drink, he crouched for over an hour and tried to convince his neighbor's cat to lap a bowl of milk.Before NPR, Brumfiel was based in London as a senior reporter for Nature Magazine from 2007-2013. There he covered energy, space, climate, and the physical sciences. In addition to reporting, he was a member of the award-winning Nature podcast team. From 2002 – 2007, Brumfiel was Nature Magazine's Washington Correspondent, reporting on Congress, the Bush administration, NASA, and the NationalNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Geoff BrumfielTue, 04 Oct 2016 14:39:34 +0000Geoff Brumfielhttp://wknofm.org
Geoff BrumfielCopyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.Physics Nobel Goes To 3 Scientists For Insights Into Matter's Behaviorhttp://wknofm.org/post/physics-nobel-goes-3-scientists-insights-matters-behavior
82331 as http://wknofm.orgTue, 04 Oct 2016 11:35:00 +0000Physics Nobel Goes To 3 Scientists For Insights Into Matter's BehaviorGeoff BrumfielWhen it comes to waves, it doesn't get much bigger than the gravitational variety. Einstein predicted that huge events — like black holes merging — create gravitational waves. Unlike most waves we experience, these are distortions in space and time. They roll across the entire universe virtually unimpeded.Einstein first predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916, but none were spotted until recently. Given their incredible power, why did it take a century to locate them?To find out, I went to see where the detection finally occurred. It's just off Interstate 12 in Livingston Parish, La. To get there you head through town, past the "Gold and Guns" pawn shop and up a country road. Turn onto an empty lane and eventually some low buildings emerge from a forest of gangly pine trees.This is the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory. That's kind of a mouthful, so scientists just call it LIGO.Physicist Joe Giaime of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge runs thisHow To Catch The Biggest Wave In The Universehttp://wknofm.org/post/how-catch-biggest-wave-universe
80581 as http://wknofm.orgWed, 17 Aug 2016 08:33:00 +0000How To Catch The Biggest Wave In The UniverseGeoff BrumfielUpdated at 6:30 a.m. ETA small plane on a daring winter evacuation mission from the South Pole landed safely Wednesday night at Punta Arenas, Chile.The National Science Foundation, which runs the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, says the Twin Otter rescue aircraft took off from the South Pole with two patients early Wednesday. It arrived at a British base 1,500 miles away shortly after 1 p.m. ET before continuing on to Chile.The South Pole station is staffed year round, but normally nobody enters or leaves during the winter months, which corresponds to the North American summer. "It's mind-boggling how cold it gets down there," says Jerry Macala, who oversaw the first-ever evacuation from the station in 2001. Temperatures routinely drop below -70 Fahrenheit, and the C-130 transport aircraft used during the summer months cannot land, Macala tells Kelly McEvers on Wednesday's All Things Considered.Macala says that landing a plane in the perpetual night is considered extremely dangerousRisky South Pole Rescue Succeeds As 2 Patients Are Airlifted Outhttp://wknofm.org/post/risky-south-pole-rescue-succeeds-2-patients-are-airlifted-out
78317 as http://wknofm.orgWed, 22 Jun 2016 20:44:00 +0000Risky South Pole Rescue Succeeds As 2 Patients Are Airlifted OutGeoff BrumfielScientists announced Wednesday that they have once again detected ripples in space and time from two black holes colliding far away in the universe.The discovery comes just months after the first-ever detection of such "gravitational waves," and it suggests that smaller-sized black holes might be more numerous than many had thought."It looks like there are going to be more of these black holes out there than we imagined," says David Reitze, the executive director of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), which recorded the latest rattle on Dec. 26, 2015.Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves a century ago as part of his General Theory of Relativity. The theory radically re-envisioned the force of gravity as a distortion in space-time. Under this theory, space is flexible and capable of wobbling."It's like a Jell-O that we all swim in," says Gabriela González, a researcher at Louisiana State University and head of LIGO's scientificGravitational Waves From Colliding Black Holes Shake Scientists' Detectors Againhttp://wknofm.org/post/gravitational-waves-colliding-black-holes-shake-scientists-detectors-again
78029 as http://wknofm.orgWed, 15 Jun 2016 17:24:00 +0000Gravitational Waves From Colliding Black Holes Shake Scientists' Detectors AgainGeoff BrumfielHouse and Senate negotiators have agreed on a plan to update a 40-year-old law regulating the safety of chemicals.The bipartisan legislation would update the Toxic Substances Control Act, which became law in 1976. The original act gave the Environmental Protection Agency the authority to require testing and reporting of potentially harmful chemicals.But as NPR's Jon Hamilton reports, the law didn't apply to most chemicals already on the market:"It assumed that thousands of untested chemicals already in use were safe."The new legislation, if it becomes law, would require the EPA to begin evaluating those untested older chemicals. It would also allow federal regulations to pre-empt those adopted by states, even if the state regulations are more stringent."The compromise bill — which the House and Senate are expected to vote on as soon as next week — is not universally supported. A group of House Democrats said in a statement that the legislation is "significantly weaker" than a previousLawmakers Reach A Deal To Expand Regulation Of Toxic Chemicalshttp://wknofm.org/post/lawmakers-agree-deal-expand-regulation-toxic-chemicals
77069 as http://wknofm.orgFri, 20 May 2016 16:45:00 +0000Lawmakers Reach A Deal To Expand Regulation Of Toxic ChemicalsGeoff BrumfielCopyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.In Polluted India, Negative Ion Necklaces Vow To Help You Breathe Easierhttp://wknofm.org/post/polluted-india-negative-ion-necklaces-vow-help-you-breathe-easier
76772 as http://wknofm.orgThu, 12 May 2016 20:46:00 +0000In Polluted India, Negative Ion Necklaces Vow To Help You Breathe EasierGeoff BrumfielThe National Institutes of Health is overhauling the leadership of its world-renowned Clinical Center, after an independent task force found the center was putting research ahead of patient safety.As NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce has reported, the Clinical Center in Bethesda, Md., is the largest research hospital in the world. Patients come from across the country seeking its experimental therapies. But a recent independent review found safety problems at two laboratories, including one run by Dr. Steven Rosenberg, a world-renowned researcher at the National Cancer Institute. Rosenberg is a pioneer in cancer immunotherapy, which harnesses the body's own immune system to fight disease.In 2015, the NIH was forced to close the Clinical Center's in-house pharmaceutical production facility after inspectors found fungal contamination, insects in light fixtures and problems in the air-handling system. That incident prompted the formation of an independent task force to review the Clinical CenterNIH Announces Leadership Shake-Up At Renowned Research Hospitalhttp://wknofm.org/post/national-institutes-health-announces-leadership-shake
76669 as http://wknofm.orgTue, 10 May 2016 15:18:00 +0000NIH Announces Leadership Shake-Up At Renowned Research HospitalGeoff BrumfielScientists have had a literal breakthrough off the coast of Mexico.After weeks of drilling from an offshore platform in the Gulf of Mexico, they have reached rocks left over from the day the Earth was hit by a killer asteroid.The cataclysm is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. "This was probably the most important event in the last 100 million years," says Joanna Morgan, a geophysicist at Imperial College in London and a leader of the expedition.Since the 1980s, researchers have known about the impact site, located near the present-day Yucatan Peninsula. Known as Chicxulub, the crater is approximately 125 miles across. It was created when an asteroid the size of Staten Island, N.Y., struck Earth around 66 million years ago. The initial explosion from the impact would have made a nuclear bomb look like a firecracker. The searing heat started wildfires many hundreds of miles away.After that, came an unscheduled winter. Sulfur, ash and debris clouded the sky. Darkness fell and, forGeologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing Asteroidhttp://wknofm.org/post/geologists-find-clues-crater-left-dinosaur-killing-asteroid
76529 as http://wknofm.orgFri, 06 May 2016 12:38:00 +0000Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing AsteroidGeoff BrumfielA small mammal has sabotaged the world's most powerful scientific instrument.The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile superconducting machine designed to smash protons together at close to the speed of light, went offline overnight. Engineers investigating the mishap found the charred remains of a furry creature near a gnawed-through power cable."We had electrical problems, and we are pretty sure this was caused by a small animal," says Arnaud Marsollier, head of press for CERN, the organization that runs the $7 billion particle collider in Switzerland. Although they had not conducted a thorough analysis of the remains, Marsollier says they believe the creature was "a weasel, probably." (Update: An official briefing document from CERN indicates the creature may have been a marten.)The shutdown comes as the LHC was preparing to collect new data on the Higgs Boson, a fundamental particle it discovered in 2012. The Higgs is believed to endow other particles with mass, and it is considered toWeasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle Colliderhttp://wknofm.org/post/weasel-apparently-shuts-down-worlds-most-powerful-particle-collider
76240 as http://wknofm.orgFri, 29 Apr 2016 15:57:00 +0000Weasel Apparently Shuts Down World's Most Powerful Particle ColliderGeoff BrumfielOn Tuesday, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and Russian billionaire Yuri Milner announced a plan to send interstellar probes to the Alpha Centauri star system. The audacious project would use a giant laser on Earth to accelerate scores of postage-stamp-size spacecraft to nearly the speed of light. They would cross the void in just 20 years — virtually no time on the scale of interstellar travel.The plan for "Breakthrough Starshot" laid out at the news conference looks both ambitious and exciting. But if it's really going to work, there are several down-to-earth problems these would-be star trekkers will have to overcome.Do You Have A Permit For That Planetary Laser?Starshot's tiny probes are supposed to be given a big push by a mammoth 100 gigawatt laser back on Earth.A laser that powerful could also fry anything in its path, including orbiting satellites. "If somebody says, 'Hey look, I'm concerned about you hitting a potential satellite,' " says Pete Worden, the project'sStephen Hawking's Plan For Interstellar Travel Has Some Earthly Obstacleshttp://wknofm.org/post/stephen-hawkings-plan-interstellar-travel-has-some-earthly-obstacles
75657 as http://wknofm.orgThu, 14 Apr 2016 17:23:00 +0000Stephen Hawking's Plan For Interstellar Travel Has Some Earthly ObstaclesGeoff BrumfielCopyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.SpaceX Rocket Sticks The Landing After Resupply Missionhttp://wknofm.org/post/spacex-rocket-sticks-landing-after-resupply-mission
75406 as http://wknofm.orgFri, 08 Apr 2016 22:35:00 +0000SpaceX Rocket Sticks The Landing After Resupply MissionGeoff Brumfielhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ10-AYgro0 In South Korea on Wednesday, a human champion of the ancient game of "Go" will square off against a computer programmed by Google DeepMind, an AI company owned by the search giant. If the machine can beat the man over a five-day match, then researchers say it will be a milestone for artificial intelligence.Here are the key things to know about the match and what it will mean for the future, both of humanity and our robot overlords.1. A computer won at chess 20 years ago. Go is tougher.IBM grabbed the headlines when its Deep Blue supercomputer bested world champion Gary Kasparov in 1997.But chess is a computer's game. It has strict rules and a limited number of moves each turn. Deep Blue gained the upper hand by crunching a huge volume of possible moves to see which ones would lead to a win.Go is a very different kind of game. Players use stones to fence off territory and capture each other's pieces. It has fewer rules and more choices eachHow Google's Neural Network Hopes To Beat A 'Go' World Championhttp://wknofm.org/post/how-googles-neural-network-hopes-beat-go-world-champion
74130 as http://wknofm.orgTue, 08 Mar 2016 20:10:00 +0000How Google's Neural Network Hopes To Beat A 'Go' World ChampionGeoff Brumfiel"I have taken a lot of pictures because I've been up here for a long time," NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said during a recent press conference from the International Space Station. "I've definitely taken some good ones and some memorable ones."When he returns to earth Tuesday evening, Kelly will have spent 340 days aboard the ISS. While that's not quite a year, it's still a record for an American astronaut, and one of the longest-lasting spaceflights ever.Kelly is not the only member of his family to visit the station. His twin brother Mark Kelly is also an astronaut, and flew multiple shuttle missions to the orbiting outpost. The twins grew up in West Orange, N.J., as the sons of police officers. "We lived a pretty exciting and adventurous life," Scott says of his childhood.Scott Kelly takes his images through the windows of the Space Station's cupola module. It might give the impression that he lives and works with the Earth constantly in view, but that's not the case. Most of theScott Kelly Reflects On His Year Off The Planethttp://wknofm.org/post/scott-kelly-reflects-his-year-planet
73809 as http://wknofm.orgTue, 01 Mar 2016 13:22:00 +0000Scott Kelly Reflects On His Year Off The PlanetGeoff Brumfiel"I have taken a lot of pictures because I've been up here for a long time," NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said during a recent press conference from the International Space Station. "I've definitely taken some good ones and some memorable ones."When he returns to Earth on Tuesday evening, Kelly will have spent 340 days aboard the ISS. While that's not quite a year, it's still a record for an American astronaut, and one of the longest-lasting spaceflights ever.Kelly is not the only member of his family to visit the station. His twin brother, Mark Kelly, was also an astronaut, and flew multiple shuttle missions to the orbiting outpost. The twins grew up in West Orange, N.J., as the sons of police officers. "We lived a pretty exciting and adventurous life," Scott says of his childhood.Scott Kelly takes his images through the windows of the Space Station's cupola module. It might give the impression that he lives and works with the Earth constantly in view, but that's not the case. Most ofScott Kelly Reflects On His Year Off The Planethttp://wknofm.org/post/scott-kelly-reflects-his-year-planet-0
73810 as http://wknofm.orgTue, 01 Mar 2016 13:22:00 +0000Scott Kelly Reflects On His Year Off The PlanetGeoff BrumfielA new study suggests that sea levels are rising at an unprecedented rate and that the problem will continue well into this century."Sea level rise in the 20th century was truly extraordinary by historical standards," says Bob Kopp, an associate professor of Earth and planetary sciences at Rutgers University, and who is lead author on the study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Sea levels rose by roughly 5½ inches in the past hundred years, Kopp says, noting, "That's faster than any century since at least 800 B.C., since the founding of Rome."Kopp's team based its findings on dozens of earlier studies carried out around the world. Those studies determined past sea levels by looking at everything from microbial fossils to the locations of ancient Roman ruins along the Italian coast.The results show sea levels remained largely unchanged for more than two millennia — except for one period around 1000 A.D., in which the oceans dropped slightly dueSea Levels Rose Faster Last Century Than In Previous 2,700 Years, Study Findshttp://wknofm.org/post/sea-levels-rose-faster-last-century-previous-2700-years-study-finds
73549 as http://wknofm.orgTue, 23 Feb 2016 18:53:00 +0000Sea Levels Rose Faster Last Century Than In Previous 2,700 Years, Study FindsGeoff Brumfiel"Raise your hand if you have ever determined your location on the planet using the stars," Lt. Daniel Stayton tells his class at the U.S. Naval Academy.A young officer halfheartedly puts up her hand. Another wavers. The rest of the class of 20 midshipmen sits stone-faced.This is the challenge facing the U.S. Navy as it tries to bring back celestial navigation. The Navy stopped training its service members to navigate by the stars about a decade ago, focusing instead on electronic navigational systems. But fears about the security of the Global Positioning System and a desire to return to the basics of naval training are pushing the fleet back toward this ancient method of finding a course across open water.Navigation by the stars dates back millennia. The ancient Polynesians used stars and constellations to help guide their outrigger canoes across thousands of miles of the Pacific Ocean. And right up until the mid-20th century, navigation on the sea was usually done by looking at theU.S. Navy Brings Back Navigation By The Stars For Officershttp://wknofm.org/post/us-navy-brings-back-navigation-stars-officers
73485 as http://wknofm.orgMon, 22 Feb 2016 10:17:00 +0000U.S. Navy Brings Back Navigation By The Stars For OfficersGeoff BrumfielOn Thursday, researchers announced the discovery of gravitational waves --wrinkles in the very fabric of space-time.But behind the headlines and news conferences were decades of hard work, hundreds of scientists and more than a billion dollars in taxpayer funds."It's profoundly satisfying that it came out the way that we intended, we'd hoped, we'd dreamed," says Kip Thorne, a gravitational theorist at Caltech who co-founded the project.The idea of gravitational waves started 100 years ago, when Albert Einstein revolutionized physics with a theory of gravity called general relativity — which reimagined the force of gravity as a warping of dimensions of space and time. The theory made a lot of startling predictions. One of them was that very heavy objects such as black holes should produce ripples in space-time itself.The ripples stayed in the realm of theory until the 1960s, when a researcher named Joseph Weber began working on ways to actually detect them. At the time, anotherEinstein, A Hunch And Decades Of Work: How Scientists Found Gravitational Waveshttp://wknofm.org/post/einstein-hunch-and-decades-work-how-scientists-found-gravitational-waves
73128 as http://wknofm.orgFri, 12 Feb 2016 19:55:00 +0000Einstein, A Hunch And Decades Of Work: How Scientists Found Gravitational WavesGeoff BrumfielFar from our galaxy, in the vast darkness of space, two massive black holes merged into a single, larger hole.And now researchers say they have detected rumblings from that cataclysmic collision as ripples in the very fabric of space-time itself. The discovery comes a century after Albert Einstein first predicted such ripples should exist."It's a really big event," says Saul Teukolsky, a theoretical astrophysicist at Cornell University. "This is probably the most exciting episode of my professional career."Einstein predicted the existence of such ripples, known officially as gravitational waves, in 1916, as part of his general theory of relativity. General relativity re-imagines the gravitational pull between heavy objects like Earth and the sun as a "warping" of space and time. When very heavy objects such as black holes are involved, the theory predicts that gravitational waves will emerge and ripple across the entire universe.That's the idea. But in practice, seeing suchIn Milestone, Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves As Black Holes Collidehttp://wknofm.org/post/milestone-scientists-detect-waves-space-time-black-holes-collide
73066 as http://wknofm.orgThu, 11 Feb 2016 15:30:00 +0000In Milestone, Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves As Black Holes CollideGeoff Brumfielhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-dKXOlsf98 A computer has bested humanity at one of the most complex strategy games ever devised.Researchers at Google have developed a program that can excel at the game of "go," which originated in China and is considered a tougher problem for a machine than other strategy games such as chess. The program has defeated the European champion of the game. Now its developers say the same technology may be used to conquer problems in everything from medicine to climate modelling.A paper describing the program appears today in the journal Nature.The game of go began in China more than 2,500 years ago. Players use white or black stones to attempt to fence off territory. Players win by both cordoning off the largest area and encircling the maximum number of their opponent's stones."It's a very beautiful game with extremely simple rules that lead to profound complexity," says Demis Hassabis, a researcher with Google Deep Mind, which developed the new program.Forget Chess. A.I. Masters Wickedly Complex, Chinese Game Of 'Go'http://wknofm.org/post/forget-chess-ai-masters-wickedly-complex-chinese-game-go
72437 as http://wknofm.orgWed, 27 Jan 2016 18:24:00 +0000Forget Chess. A.I. Masters Wickedly Complex, Chinese Game Of 'Go'Geoff BrumfielThis week, NASA is set to reach a milestone on one of its most ambitious projects. If all goes to plan, workers will finish assembling the huge mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope — an $8 billion successor to the famous Hubble telescope."So far, everything — knock on wood — is going quite well," says Bill Ochs, the telescope's project manager at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.The massive mirror is being built in a facility that's essentially a giant, ultra-clean gymnasium. NPR can't go inside for risk of contamination, but I meet crew chief Dave Sime at an observation deck where we can see the mirror below. Sime works for the contractor Harris Corp., and he's normally in there assembling it. When he is, he has to wear a white suit that covers every inch of his body."The only thing exposed is your eyes," he says. (Spacecraft assembly pro tip, he adds: To use your cellphone in the clean area, try a Bluetooth headset under your protective clothing.)For months now, he's beenMassive Space Telescope Is Finally Coming Togetherhttp://wknofm.org/post/massive-space-telescope-finally-coming-together
72327 as http://wknofm.orgMon, 25 Jan 2016 09:57:00 +0000Massive Space Telescope Is Finally Coming Together